Yesterday and Today

[megoscott]

Wow, that site is awesome. It's even better than Malls of America, and that was a great blog too.

This photo takes me back--Kmart was where I drooled over many super hero toys in the 70s.

It's great that you went back and took photos of the old place, Scott. Thanks!

[Captain]

Man, that K-Mart pic does take a person back. All their stores looked the same in the 70's...the fake wood grain panelling on everything, the K-Mart sign with the green background....the aisles where you could buy cheap foodstuffs like jam from Poland and cookies from Czechoslovakia. Canada lost our K-Marts in the nineties and I'm not ashamed to say I miss 'em!!!

[AAAAA]

Attention K-mart shoppers if you notice the flashing blue in the toy department means we are running a store special ,for the next 30 minutes Mego Action figure are now 75% off.and thank you for shopping K-mart.

[EmergencyIan]

I certainly have fond memories of Sears, as well. We had a couple of them in Evansville.


- Ian

[trekman101]

There was a store in Manhattan that my parents used to shop in....I can't remember the name(it might have bee something like "job lot city") that had the toy department in the basement with a big set of switch back stairs leading to it.It's gone now but I still have dreams of it once in a while with all the fond memories I associated with it.

[HardyGirl]

I remember going to Macy's in NYC and drooling in the toy department. I also remember a certain thrift store, maybe Ritz, I dunno, where I used to go and hide behind the clothes racks. My mom would pretend she didn't know where I was, but she did. I remember she bought me Tigrrrrrr scooter, a rag doll I named Nancy and a matching smiley face shirt and purse.

[Shleprok34]

I've been somewhat lucky. The Sears here disppeared years ago. The building was divided up internally. It went through several changes and is currently a Big Lots, a Bealls Outlet, and a Radio Shack, among other things. The great thing is that the K Mart where I got the majority of my Megos remains open and in business to this day. The internal layout of the store has evolved somewhat, but otherwise it isn't all that different. It even managed to survive all the hurricanes that came through here a few years back. I did notice one problem though.

They really need to restock there Megos.

[ScottA]

I just felt like bumping this back up for the newbies.

[ScottA]

UPDATE!!

I heard on the news a few weeks ago that the Sears was scheduled for demolition as part of the revitalization of that neighborhood. I didn't get a chance to swing by and snap some pics until this weekend. The true end of an era as the building has been there for over 48 years. The building is now gone but the memories I will always have.

[MegoMark71]

Wow, I have no connection to the building and it still makes me sad to see it gone.

[HardyGirl]

Wow, I have no connection to the building and it still makes me sad to see it gone.

Me too...bye Sears.

[MIB41]

The sad part is Sears will soon be gone completely. The franchise continues to lose hundreds of millions of dollar a quarter and the current CEO is in the process of selling off anything of value. He currently is taking bids for well known brand names like Craftsman. Now, you know when Sears is letting go of Craftsman it's all over. The days of catalog shopping and walking through department stores are quickly becoming a thing of the past. I hear that Amazon is going to build enough warehouse space to eventually compete with Walmart for top retailer. When a mail order company is pushing aside a behemoth like Walmart, that is certainly a shift in consumer habits. Of course I can't argue against it. I utilize Amazon and Ebay alot. And often find significantly better deals for common items than I could going to a store. Times are ah changing...

[UnderdogDJLSW]

Sad to see it go. They are tearing down the local indoor shopping mall near us and are going to replace it with an outdoor shopping experience. My wife and I were trying to fathom why people would rather have a "mall" where you can be rained on or cold, etc compared to one where you could go on a bad weather day. Of course, if it is good weather I guess you get more business, I don't know...

[megocrazy]

The mall is a dying breed. The things I see surviving would be clothes, home improvement, jewelry. You can't try on online clothing. 12' wood doesn't squeeze into a box too easily. Who's gonna buy an engagement ring online. I'm sure some other stuff as well. Electronics, DVD's, tools, all can be bought online nationwide and shipped from one or two warehouses, versus multiple brick and mortar stores. The overhead is just no where near the same. We're losing two malls within 35 miles of my house in the very near future, and there are at least two more that I suspect will be gone within the next two years. Every time I go into them they're ghost towns. Hundreds of stores and thousands of jobs gone. They are talking about converting one to a casino.

[palitoy]

I'm sure our parents generation lamented the fall of downtowns with the advent of malls, our kids will likely miss the "box store" concept when that becomes passe.

The one thing I miss about malls when is the unique flavor they once had, now it's all chains and they contain the same stores/selection the mall closest to your home does.